Conventionally, in an operation terminal of a computer, when no operation is performed for a fixed time, a screen saver is activated to prevent the third party from easily inspecting information displayed on a monitor. Security management for information is performed by such a screen saver function.
The screen saver function is provided not only in a general-purpose computer but also in operation terminals included in various kinds of medical image diagnostic apparatuses and various apparatuses such as an analytical instrument. For example, a technique for providing a screen saver control function in an analytical instrument including a function of creating and rendering a graph from measurement data and, when, for example, no operation is performed for a certain fixed time during measurement, activating a screen saver according to the screen saver control function is devised (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Moreover, a technique for providing, in this analytical instrument, a data processing device for analytical instruments that displays a latest graph result calculated by a chromatogram processing unit on a screen saver screen displayed on a monitor is devised. In this technique, a method of creating a screen saver screen using a graph and a method of pasting the graph on the screen saver screen are devised.
In a screen saver control technique in the conventional analytical instruments, only display of specific information such as a graph result is examined. In an apparatus that displays only a single image corresponding to a purpose such as the analytical instrument, it is possible to improve convenience of the apparatus by displaying specific information decided in advance on the screen saver.
However, when the screen saver function is provided in the operation terminal of the medical image diagnostic apparatus, things are different. The medical image diagnostic apparatus includes plural functions such as a registration function for photographed patient information, a medical image photographing function, a medical image observation function, and a filing function. Various images corresponding to the respective functions are displayed on the operation terminal of the medical image diagnostic apparatus. In general, usable functions vary depending on an attribute of a user of the medical image diagnostic apparatus, for example, whether the user is a doctor or a radio engineer.
Therefore, when the screen saver function is provided in the operation terminal of the medical image diagnostic apparatus, it is inappropriate to dynamically create a screen save screen using specific information decided in advance as in the technique used for the conventional analytical instrument. It is necessary to cause the operation terminal to arbitrarily define image information to be displayed while the screen saver is active according to a status of the medical image diagnostic apparatus and authorities of users. In this regard, such necessity is not taken into account at all in the screen saver control technique used in the conventional analytical instrument.
Incidentally, in a GUI (Graphical user interface) forming a basis of the screen saver control technique, in general, arrangement of display items of the GUI is determined on the basis of fixed rules. For example, a patient name is arranged on the upper left of a screen and an application execution button is arranged in a lower part of the screen. In this way, the display items such as execution buttons are arranged according to a fixed rule for each application type. This takes into account a characteristic that a color, a shape, and an arrangement position of an object affect object cognition of the human.
When such characteristic of a cognition ability of the human is considered, it is inappropriate as a control technique for a screen saver, which should be displayed on a screen of the operation terminal in the medical image diagnostic apparatus, to create a screen saver image simply using calculation in progress of a chromatograph as in the screen saver control technique used in the conventional analytical instrument. This is because, when the screen saver is used in the medical image diagnostic apparatus, it is necessary to display information, which has plural different meanings such as a processing progress state of an application and an examination request state, on the operation terminal while concealing privacy information of a patient such as a patient name from which the patient can be identified. Thus, depending on display positions of the respective kinds of information, it is likely that misunderstanding of a user is induced.
Therefore, when information is presented on the screen saver screen of the operation terminal in the medical image diagnostic apparatus, it is desirable that information is displayed on the screen saver screen in the same color and the same arrangement as a screen used by a user in his/her daily work. However, in the screen saver control technique used in the conventional analytical instrument, such display of information is not taken into account at all.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-229538